1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to flight director instruments particularly for rotary wing aircraft.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Flight director instruments and systems are well known for use in aircraft for providing visual commands to the pilot, who, by manipulation of the controls, flies the craft so as to satisfy the commands thereby effecting desired flight conditions; see for example Applicant's assignee's U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,613,350, 2,613,352 or 2,782,395. As shown therein, the conventional crosspointer flight director indicator instrument utilizes vertical and horizontal command pointers or bars and a stationary airplane symbol at the center of the instrument. Flight director commands are satisfied by the pilot "flying the airplane symbol toward the bars." Such aircraft control requires at least rudimentary thought on the part of the pilot so as to manipulate the control column, control wheel and rudder pedals of, for example, conventional fixed wing aircraft so as to satisfy the flight director commands. Additionally, visual cues such as "doughnuts," movable wedges and short bars are utilized in flight director instruments to provide visual references to the pilot for a variety of flight regimes such as, for example, glide slope and localizer displacement references in an instrument landing system or speed deviations from a desired speed, etc. Such flight director instruments have also been utilized in helicopters in a similar manner; see for example Applicant's assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 2,845,623.
Although as is known the flight director concept represents a significant improvement over the pilot assimilating raw data from basic aircraft instruments and making his own command decisions, present day flight director indicators and cues do not trigger instinctive recognition and responses in pilots with regard to the actual controls and the motions thereof required to satisfy the flight director commands.